Google ‘sorry’ after disturbing videos found AGAIN on YouTube Kids app

The company has been exposed for giving children access to age-inappropriate videos yet again, forcing ANOTHER apology

By Sean Keach, Digital Technology and Science Editor

6th February 2018, 4:11 pm

Updated: 6th February 2018, 5:04 pm

YOUTUBE has apologised after disturbing clips were found on its video app for children.

The YouTube Kids app has been slammed over its lack of human curation before, but it looks like the Google-owned service has failed to learn its lesson.

Alamy

A worrying investigation found age-inappropriate materials on YouTube Kids

The app is built for children, as YouTube explains: "We created YouTube Kids to make it safer and simpler for kids to explore the world through online video."

But an investigation by BBC Newsround found several videos on the app that were inappropriate for children, including one showing how to sharpen knives.

The report also reveals that another showed "characters from children's cartoon Paw Patrol in a burning plane".

Apologising for the fiasco, Google's Katie O'Donovan said that the company was "very, very sorry for any hurt or discomfort".

YouTube Kids is designed to be a family-friendly version of the video-sharing site for younger children

An accompanying video showed children revealing how they have seen distressing videos on the main YouTube site, including images of clowns with blood on them, scary advertisements, and "messages telling them someone was at their door".

The investigation also found dodgy videos on the YouTube Kids app too, including cartoon characters with guns, and children's characters being injured.

Speaking to the BBC, YouTube said: "We have seen significant investment in building the right tools so people can flag that [content], and those flags are reviewed very, very quickly.
"We're also beginning to use machine learning to identify the most harmful content, which is then automatically reviewed."

The company came under fire back in 2015 after child safety groups uncovered inappropriate videos on the YouTube Kids app.

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